Speculation simmered yesterday over a possible trip by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to North Korea to resolve a feud over kidnapped Japanese, but officials said more groundwork was needed before any visit could be made.
A breakthrough in the dispute over the abductees, an emotive topic in Japan, would clear the way for talks on establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries and would be a political coup for Koizumi ahead of a July Upper House election.
"A visit by the prime minister is our best card. I hope any decision on it will be made carefully," said ruling Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Shinzo Abe.
"It's important that there's a clear outlook that the abduction issue will be solved," he told a news conference.
Koizumi's popularity ratings shot up after he met Kim Jong-il in September 2002, when the North Korean leader admitted to the kidnapping of 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to help train spies.
Five of those abductees came home to Japan, a quarter century after being snatched away. But they had to leave behind their North Korean-born children -- now teenagers and adults -- and one American spouse. Pyongyang has said the other eight had died from illness, accidents or suicide.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiro-yuki Hosoda told a separate news conference that several issues needed to be sorted out before Koi-zumi could travel to Pyongyang to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in what would be the second summit between the two.
"Please think of it as a completely clean slate," Hosoda told reporters when asked about reports that North Korea had proposed a Koizumi visit at last week's bilateral talks.
Koizumi was also coy. "Media reports seem to be saying various things but there is nothing I can say at this point," Kyodo news agency quoted him as telling reporters.
On Sunday, the Nihon Keizai business newspaper said the premier had told Foreign Ministry officials to start preparations for a possible trip to Pyongyang.
The Nihon Keizai said Koizumi could make a visit once Pyongyang promised that family members of Japanese abductees who are still in the North could be reunited with relatives in Japan.
In return, Tokyo would provide humanitarian aid for the North's struggling economy, the paper added.
Top spokesman Hosoda noted, however, that besides bilateral issues, the thorny matter of North Korea's nuclear programme had yet to be solved.
Delegates from the two Ko-reas, China, Japan, Russia and the US are to meet in Beijing tomorrow for working level talks on the nuclear standoff. Two-way talks between North Korean and Japanese officials could take place on the sidelines.
Families of the returned abductees want Koizumi to make the trip and bring their relatives home, but those whose loved ones are said to be dead or missing worry that this might close the door to finding out the truth about their fates, Japanese media said.
Besides the seven North Korean-born children, Japan also wants the husband of one abductee, Charles Jenkins, a US soldier said by Washington to have defected to the North, to be allowed to join his wife in Japan.
‘SHARP COMPETITION’: Australia is to partner with US-based Lockheed Martin to make guided multiple launch rocket systems, an Australian defense official said Australia is to ramp up missile manufacturing under a plan unveiled yesterday by a top defense official, who said bolstering weapons stockpiles would help keep would-be foes at bay. Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said the nation would establish a homegrown industry to produce long-range guided missiles and other much-needed munitions. “Why do we need more missiles? Strategic competition between the United States and China is a primary feature of Australia’s security environment,” Conroy said in a speech. “That competition is at its sharpest in our region, the Indo-Pacific.” Australia is to partner with US-based weapons giant Lockheed Martin to make
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
Pets are not forgotten during Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, when even Fido and Tiger get a place at the altars Mexican families set up to honor their deceased loved ones, complete with flowers, candles and photographs. Although the human dead usually get their favorite food or drink placed on altars, the nature of pet food can make things a little different. The holiday has roots in Mexican pre-Hispanic customs, as does the reverence for animals. The small, hairless dogs that Mexicans kept before the Spanish conquest were believed to help guide their owners to the afterlife, and were sometimes given